


The Sixteenth Time

by canadiankazz



Series: Times Jasper Fed from Annabelle [16]
Category: Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Masquerade - L.A. By Night (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst and Porn, Blood Drinking, Brujah (Vampire: The Masquerade), Doggy Style, F/M, Nosferatu (Vampire: The Masquerade), Vaginal Fingering, Vampires, look at how far they've come since part 1!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2019-12-29 01:42:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18297734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canadiankazz/pseuds/canadiankazz
Summary: The night before Elysium, Annabelle has something to show Jasper that he's not going to like, and something to offer him that he will.SPOILERS for the end of Campaign 1, the one-shots, and up to and including Episode 7 of Season 2. This fic is part of an AU series where Jasper has been feeding from Annabelle and they now have a Blood Bond and a slow burn romantic relationship. This was written before the author saw Episode 9 of Season 2. It’s obviously worth reading the rest of the "Feeds From" series before this part.





	The Sixteenth Time

**Author's Note:**

> This is sort of my way of re-writing my first L.A. by Night fic, [Googled](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17434241), and applying it to my AU 'Feeds From' Universe.
> 
> As always, I lay no claim to owning any of the characters involved, and my eternal thanks to everyone who has read and enjoyed my fic. Thanks to L and M, my beloved coterie.

It was the night before they were going to go to Elysium to meet with the Prince. Jasper was nervous. He wasn't pacing around his sanctum, but it was a near thing. He had done something he almost never did, not since he was alive, and planned his outfit for the next night. He hadn't even done that for the next best thing, which had been the Succubus Club party. He was not going to get away with just wearing a borrowed red bow tie with his regular get up at this event, oh no. If he stood any chance of convincing Vannavar that he was considering the Sheriff job offer, he had to _look_ the part of a swanky Camarilla member. That took effort and planning. He thought he had something pretty good laid out though. The red glasses were a nice touch, he thought. He was having one last browse through the shallow depths of his closet when his phone went off with a message from Annabelle.

Annabelle, of course, was not going to the party tomorrow night. Instead, she was going on a recruiting mission with Nines. Nines Rodriguez hadn't impressed Jasper all that much when they had met, but he could tell that Annabelle was rather taken with him. He seemed to have adopted her as the Brujah mentor that Carver never was nor could be, and Jasper supposed that for that, he was grateful.

Jasper pulled out his old phone and read Annabelle's message in their private chat. “I've found something you need to see.”

He frowned a little as he texted in reply. “What is it?”

“It's easier to show you on computer. Mine or yours?”

Jasper knew she was asking if they should meet at his sanctum or her student house. He didn't have fantastic internet down in his sanctum and either way, he was going to have to either kick her out early the next night if she stayed over, or go home early from her place. He needed time to get ready for the Ivory Tower party. He decided that him going home early was kinder on their relationship than kicking her out and making her try to get home before dawn, and he was better at sneaking places than she was.

“Yours,” he texted. “See you in a few minutes.”

He looked over his chosen outfit one more time, then hung it up carefully. He was almost certain that the Prince would maintain the rules of Elysium, but there was every possibility that things could go bad. Whatever it was that Annabelle had found that she wanted to show Jasper so badly almost didn't matter to him right now. He was just glad for a chance to see Annabelle and hold her before he went into the lion's den with the rest of their coterie.

Jasper crept out of his sanctum unseen and moved silently towards Annabelle's home. He knocked softly on her door when he arrived. She must have been waiting for him by the door because it didn't take her long to open it. Jasper went inside, dropping Obfuscate.

The first thing Annabelle did when she saw Jasper was hug him. He hugged her back. She wasn't wearing her red jacket because she was not planning on going out that night.

“Nervous about tomorrow?” she asked.

He chuckled dryly, trying not to snarl. “Of course.”

She looked at him with a confidant smile. “I think you'll be okay.”

“Hopefully,” he agreed. He bowed his head to rest it against hers, forehead to forehead. “I'm glad I have a chance to see you tonight,” he said very quietly.

Annabelle put her hands on his cheeks, rose up on her tiptoes and tilted her head upwards to give his forehead a light kiss. “Me too. Can you stay over?”

Jasper shook his head regretfully. “No.”

“Do you have a few hours at least?”

“Yes.”

“Good. We can... do stuff later, if you'd like. I want you as safely well-fed as I can before you go in there,” she gave him a brief, but sexy smile, promising a good time later that night. “I have to show you this first though.”

Annabelle sat on the sofa. Her laptop was open on the coffee table. Jasper sat beside her and stared at the screen. He was shocked at what he saw on it.

It was his face. His human face. It was a photograph from when he was alive.

Jasper looked from the screen to Annabelle. She had been watching his reaction and looked sad and a little anxious.

“Is... was that you?” she asked gently.

Jasper looked again at the photo. Short dark hair. Expressive brown eyes. Pale skin, but healthy, outside in daylight. Jasper brought his hands up to his mouth, his fingers interlaced together, pensive and still in mild shock.

“Jasper?” Annabelle asked.

“Yeah,” he said softly. His voice was rough. “Yeah... that's... that _was_... me.”

Annabelle bit her lip. “You look so different. Your eyes...”

His eyes were a completely different colour now, cold and blue-white compared to the warm brown in the photograph. “Yeah, I know,” Jasper agreed.

“I was um, Googling,” Annabelle said, “trying to find if there was any information on who might have defaced your grave and why they picked you and... I found this. Someone had been investigating your death and uploaded some of their findings to this conspiracy theory website. Um...” Annabelle clicked a few times on the laptop's touch pad, showing Jasper what she had found. “There's a missing person's report and some records of the case being closed not long after and then an obituary.”

Jasper stayed how he was, his elbows on his knees and his hands on his face with his fingers laced together. The only bit of him that moved was his eyes, reading the documents on the screen and looking at the images.

“Basically...” Annabelle continued, “someone worked out that it didn't make sense how quickly your missing persons case was closed and how quick your funeral seemed to be afterwards and they think that there's some kind of cover-up going on. Which... to be fair... isn't wrong.”

She noticed that Jasper hadn't moved or said anything. She put a gentle hand on his arm, regretting showing him this now. “I'm sorry, Jasper. When I started to look into this, I didn't think I'd find all this information, but... at least we know that there is someone out there who does believe that your death was faked.”

Jasper felt like his heart was in his throat. He swallowed before speaking. “My death isn't fake.”

“No, I know, but...” Annabelle sighed, slightly exasperated. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah. I think... I know who did this. I think it was her.”

“Her?”

Jasper moved his hands down. One of them went to hers, still resting on his arm. He found it difficult to look away from the picture of his old face. He remembered when that photo was taken. She had made him laugh to get him to smile. He hadn't liked to smile in photos.

“My girlfriend,” he said in a hollow voice, tinged with a growl. This was all further proof how stupid he had been to give her that note. “She... did journalism in college. Writes for the Griffith College Gazette.”

“Oh,” Annabelle said. She remembered back to when she still attended. She had read the Gazette fairly often. “Chloe... something?” she guessed.

Jasper nodded, his face stoic, still trying to process everything.

“Um... there's a bit more to the site... do you want to see it?” Annabelle asked hesitantly. She could easily tell that Jasper was uncomfortable.

Jasper nodded again.

“Okay...” Annabelle clicked on a few more links. One of them brought up another photo, one of Jasper and Chloe together. It was a selfie. She was kissing his cheek and he was smirking. Another photo she had tricked him into smiling in. “Um... remember, Ramona said that she was okay, last the rat pack saw her, right?” Annabelle reminded him.

Jasper licked his lips and nodded. He had recently come across some additional and very concerning information about that. “Yeah, but she's been missing classes, apparently.”

“That's... not good. Um…” Annabelle pointed to the screen. “It says here in this bit that she seems to think the rats might have something to do with your disappearance, but she doesn't have any solid evidence to back that up yet.”

Jasper snorted. Even to him, that sounded like an odd leap of logic. He blinked and realised that his eyes were wetter than normal. He wiped them and saw blood on his fingers.

Annabelle noticed, perhaps smelling the blood first. “Oh, Jasper, I'm sorry!” She got him a Kleenex. “I shouldn't have showed you this! I'm sorry.”

“It's okay,” he said softly, wiping the tears away. “It's just... not what I expected to see tonight.”

“No, I know, I just... thought you would want to know that she was investigating you.” Annabelle felt awful. She bit her lip. “I think she may have been the one to spray paint your grave after all.”

“Maybe.”

Annabelle closed her laptop and hugged Jasper tightly. It took him a few seconds to return it, but when he did, he felt himself lean into her as the part of him that wanted comfort got the better of the part of him that didn’t.

“What are you going to do?” Annabelle asked quietly.

“For now? Nothing. I have the meeting with the Prince tomorrow night. After that... assuming we don't die... I'll continue to do nothing. I can't see her or contact her again. I just have to... hope she gives up eventually, before she investigates too far.”

Annabelle's heart was already broken for him, but she felt it metaphorically shatter even further. He had told her once that he doubted that his loved ones still missed him, because it had been so long since his death. She had told him that wasn't how human hearts worked, in her experience. It looked like Annabelle had been right. This wasn't any thing to gloat about though. She just held him quietly for several minutes. When he pulled back, he wiped his eyes on the tissue again. She pretended not to notice, but showed him where the garbage bin was anyway to get rid of it.

“You were so handsome, back in the day,” Annabelle said, trying to lighten the mood a little.

Jasper rolled his eyes. “No, I wasn't, but at least I didn't look like...” he flexed his fingers, “something out of a horror movie.”

“Well... I think you were handsome then, and handsome now too, for a Nosferatu. And don't forget, I've met other Nosferatu now, so I have some faces to compare yours to.”

Jasper studied her face and felt his blood. He didn't think she was lying about her opinion of his looks.

“You're better than Gary, anyway... even if he is a better dresser than you,” Annabelle added. She felt like this attempt at humour wasn't going to work, but she saw Jasper smile, just a tiny bit.

“Gary Golden is a legend and I'll not hear a bad word about him,” he said.

“And he has all my respect! But you're more handsome than he is, even still,” Annabelle insisted.

“You're just saying that to cheer me up.”

“Yes. Is it working?”

He wanted to tell her no, but it would have been a lie. She could see it in his expression and hugged him again. “Honestly, though...” she said, “you already know how I feel about how you look. You were handsome then and you are, to me, handsome now.”

“Thanks.”

Annabelle pulled back a little bit, towards her bedroom. “Come to bed. I know you can't stay, but... I want to give you some blood so you're ready to face them tomorrow. I'm barely hungry at all, so we should be fine. You can drink it from wherever you'd like on my body.”

That was a very tempting offer that made his Beast stir with interest. “Anywhere?”

“Sure. Neck... thigh?” Annabelle rubbed against him a little bit, then tugged him gently down the hall towards her room. “For a little while, let's not worry about what's going on. There’s nothing we can do right at this moment anyways. Let's be brainless instead,” she said, trying to invoke a memory of a time when he started out biting her thigh and ended up eating her out. That had been a good night.

It was working. Jasper let himself be pulled along into her bedroom. A little smile crept onto his face.

Annabelle reclined back on her bed, pulling her shirt off as she did so. She let it fall to the floor. Jasper sat on the bed, watching her. He lowered his hood, having been here enough times over the past few months to feel comfortable.

Jasper's eyes trailed over the curves of Annabelle's torso. Annabelle tilted her head at him with a little smile. “Why don't you take the whole hoodie off? Please?”

Back when he had first started feeding from her, Annabelle had asked him about his hoodies and wanted to see him without them. He had told her no, repetitively, not understanding why she wanted to see him like that when he found it so repulsive. Now though, when she asked, he only hesitated for a small moment before starting to remove his clothes. Until he had started this cycle of feeding from her and the two of them getting more and more intimate by degrees, he hadn't realised how much he had missed skin-on-skin contact. Right after his embrace, he had flinched away from anyone trying to touch him. In addition to the ghastly grey pallor, black veins and chill of death, it was also uncomfortably dry to the touch for most people. Annabelle was one of the few who didn't seem to mind it, or maybe she did, but she forced herself to look past it. Either way, she had provided Jasper with most of the intimacy he had missed since he was turned.

Once he was shirtless, Annabelle drew him in closer until they were laying beside each other, spooning. She was almost always the little spoon. Jasper had both arms around her, one over her side and the other under her neck. Annabelle could tell that Jasper wasn't in a particularly frisky mood at the moment, and that was okay. They were together in peace for a moment and that's all that mattered.

She concentrated for a second and activated Blush of Life. Jasper snarled softly as he felt her pulse start and her skin warm. He placed a hand over her heart to feel it beat. He could sense, without her saying so, that she wanted him to do the same, and so he did. His Beast didn't like it, but he hold himself that soon, very soon, he would feed.

Annabelle put a warm hand over his on her heart and waited for his body to warm up. “You're always so chilly, even with Blush of Life,” she said softly.

“Maybe I'm cold-hearted,” he mused, not in a serious tone. He was distracted by feeling her pulse and smelling her Vitae flowing in her neck.

“No, you're not,” Annabelle insisted. She brought his hand up to her lips and kissed his fingers. He used to want to pull away from that too, but now he allowed it. Something in his soul craved positive affection. “I think... and I have nothing to back this up, it's just a feeling... that maybe your body forgot what it felt like to be alive for too long.”

“Mmm,” he grunted, noncommittally. She shifted her body against his a little and placed his hand back over her heart, which was, due to typical human anatomy, also placing his hand close to her breast. Jasper slipped a few fingers under her bra and gave her soft flesh a gentle, experimental squeeze. Annabelle sighed minutely in pleasure and her pulse went up a little bit.

Encouraged, Jasper continued, slipping his whole hand into her bra to feel her. He pulled back a little, to give Annabelle room to reach behind herself to unhook her bra. She wriggled her arms out of the straps and let it drop to the floor. She sighed and relaxed back down to allow Jasper to continue to fondle her, if that was his desire. He did so, finding her body to be a wonderful distraction from his anxieties. He could sense that she was enjoying herself as he stroked and explored her chest. He couldn’t deny that he was having fun too. He was no Casanova, but he knew his way around a woman's body and he knew Annabelle well enough by now to know what she liked.

“Mmm...” Annabelle sighed. “Have I ever told you how much I love your hands?”

“No, you haven't,” Jasper mused, running his fingers over one of her nipples. It reacted to his touch, hardening. Annabelle moaned very softly.

“Well... I do,” she said, her voice getting a little breathy. “I would sometimes stare at them during coterie meetings. When... mm... you told me you used to play piano, it made sense. You're so... dexterous.”

Jasper smiled a little, his face pressed to Annabelle's shoulder. He gave her skin a little kiss there. “Thank you.”

He wasn't teasing her per-say, but he was slowly building up Annabelle's pleasure. He wanted to be able to taste her lust and desire in her blood when he eventually bit into her. Jasper rolled Annabelle back slightly so he could reach her breast with his mouth. Annabelle hissed faintly when he gave her dark down nipple a little lick and a suck.

“Mmm...” she moaned, her body starting to writhe. “That feels good... but... if you bite my boob, I will not be happy... clear?”

Jasper looked up at her face and grinned, making it deliberately fangy. “Clear.”

Annabelle shivered as Jasper's face dipped down again. She could feel his fangs in the soft flesh of her breast, on either side of her areola, but he did not bite down. She placed a hand on the back of his neck as he suckled on her. Pleasure coiled in her groin as her heartbeat continued to rise.

Jasper pulled back and went back to nuzzling her neck and shoulder from behind. One of his hands continued to stroke and lightly pinch one of her nipples. The other started to undo her pants.

“Mmm... tell me... about how good... I taste...” Annabelle moaned softly. She could tell that Jasper was getting ready to bite her soon.

“Your Vitae,” Jasper growled low in her ear as he wormed his fingers into her pants and underwear, “is powerful, potent, and _delicious_. I can taste your strength, your lust, and when it's warm like it is now... there are no words, Annabelle, for how good it makes me feel.” He all but purred these last words. His fingers found her sex, slick with her arousal, and he started to rub her slowly.

Annabelle shuddered and moaned, parting her legs and pushing her pants down to give him better access. “Bite me... taste me... please...”

“Well... since you asked so nicely...” Jasper opened his mouth, pressed his fangs to the skin of her neck and slowly, but firmly bit down. Annabelle hissed in pain. Vitae welled up and filled Jasper's mouth. He swallowed slowly, savouring it. She writhed slowly against him as the pain faded, pressing her back against his chest. He kept his fingers on her sex and breast, swivelling his hand between her legs so that he could slip first one, then two long fingers inside her.

Annabelle moaned loudly at that. He moved his fingers in and out of her, lapping at her wound in time with these movements. Annabelle could also feel his erection growing, pressing against her, straining against his skinny jeans. The lust in her warm blood was having an exciting effect on his body.

Jasper's fingers sped up, a little harder, a little faster, eager to make her climax. He let himself suck a little harder on her skin, feeling another warm rush of blood enter him. Annabelle cried out, tipping over the edge of orgasm, her muscles clenching around his fingers. She gritted her teeth against her screams and groaned low in her throat. “ _Guh…! Yes…!_ ”

If his Beast had its way, Jasper would never stop feeding from her. It took effort for him to pull away. He licked her wound, the Vitae already leaving his brain and heading south. She was feeling dizzy as well, moaning softly. He continued to finger her slowly, letting her body move against his hand. His erection was straining, needing her touch, to feel her body around him.

Jasper shifted, pulling his other arm out from under her neck. Awkwardly, he undid his pants. He had to pull his fingers out of her to achieve this task as quickly as he wanted to. Annabelle whimpered as he did so. He licked her fluids off his fingers and pulled his pants down and off. He also stripped Annabelle of her pants, which were around her knees and ankles. She offered no resistance. Annabelle blinked at him, smiling a dopey little smile.

“Mmm... look at you...” she said, admiring his body, “all ready to go...”

Jasper got back into place behind her, with his arms around her. They rubbed and ground their bodies against each other for a moment or two. His cock slipped between Annabelle's legs and poked at her wetness. Annabelle shifted, more or less sitting on Jasper's lap, facing away from him. His hand went back to her chest, feeling her. He squeezed her a little more roughly than he had earlier, but Annabelle did not mind in the least. Neither of them were thinking very coherently. Both were moving on instinct, listening to what their bodies wanted.

Annabelle's Beast growled at her, displeased with the Vitae she had given to Jasper. She aimed to silence it by overwhelming her senses with his body, his hands and, most importantly, his long, curved cock.

After a few final adjustments, she felt his tip push inside her. She gasped. He pulled out and pushed in again, a little deeper, snarling to himself. Again, a little deeper, and again, deeper still. Annabelle started to moan with each stroke. Jasper's grip on her breast tightened, holding her body close to his while still thrusting at a good angle to bring them pleasure. Annabelle's leg curled up and backwards, over his, trying to encourage him a little deeper. He ground his hips against her ass, enjoying feeling her strong, lithe body against his.

“Mmm... more...!” Annabelle moaned with desperation.

Jasper growled in her ear. She felt the vibration in his chest. He thrust a little harder against her, pushing and pulling against her body. Annabelle ended up being moved face-down on the bed with Jasper on top of her, still inside her. He held onto her hips, keeping her ass slightly in the air as he thrust and all of a sudden, he was hitting her G-spot with each stroke. Annabelle started to moan loudly, muffled by the pillows. Jasper continued to grind and thrust against her, inside her, encouraged by those moans and her hot, wet tightness around him.

Jasper growled and grunted in pleasure and effort. “How does it feel, Annabelle?” he asked, his voice almost inhumanly rough and bestial. He leaned down to snarl in her ear. “I can feel it in your blood, but I want you to tell me, in your words...”

Annabelle forced her face up, out of the pillows, breathing hard with the exertion of Blush of Life. “So good,” she whimpered, “so good...”

“Go on...” Jasper urged. He needed every bit of confidence he could get. They were going into Elysium tomorrow night, full of Kindred who could make him into their plaything with very little effort. If this ended up being a suicide mission...

 _No_! He shook his head to clear his mind of those thoughts. He pushed a little harder and faster into Annabelle, willing her body and blood to distract him.

“Go on,” he urged her again. “Tell me!” He put a hand around her shoulder to help pull her face out of the pillows.

Annabelle cried out as he fucked her harder. “You feel... so _good_.. God... Jasper...!” she gasped, “so _good_... inside me...!”

Satisfied with this response and using her shoulder for leverage now, he continued his rough, brutal rhythm. The continued stimulation against her G-Spot made Annabelle tremble.

“Nnn... I'm going to... _mmm_...!” she moaned. He felt Annabelle clench around him again in waves as her moans raised in pitch. Jasper growled in approval in her ear.

Jasper continued, unrelenting, taking his pleasure from her body, forcing her down into her bed. He didn't let her recover from her recent climax. Annabelle's moans and cries became muffled again. All thought disappeared. There was only the raw, sensational pleasure.

Some moments later, he growled again, feeling himself getting close. He slowed his thrusts and ground against her slowly to prolong it a little. He could hear Annabelle swearing into the pillows. Her toes were curled and her hands were fists clutching the bedding. “Do it,” she growled. “Fuck me! Do it...!”

Jasper licked his fangs. His blood pulled to her, his willpower and obedience with it. He did not even try to resist it. “As you command,” he snarled. He doubled back down on his thrusting and grinding, making Annabelle pant and gasp encouragement and curses. He continued until he climaxed, baring down inside her. His hands clutched her hips and he grunted and growled, his cock pumping. Both he and Annabelle breathed hard in their excursions, their undead hearts pounding in their chests.

Jasper pulled out and away, laying on his back beside her. Annabelle groaned and didn't move, save for stretching her legs and flopping her nearest arm over his chest. Jasper chuckled, his hand going to hers. He hugged her arm. “Good?”

“Mm-hmm...” she said, still muffled. Annabelle turned her face to look at him. He reached over to brush her hair out of her face and behind her ear. She snuggled a little closer to him. “You?”

“Yeah... yeah, I'm good.”

They lay peacefully for a minute or two. Annabelle lazily traced a particularly dark vein on his chest that seemed to come out of where his heart was. “Do you have to go?” she asked quietly.

He had known this was coming. The physical distractions were over, though the pleasurable memories of them lingered. “Yeah,” Jasper said with regret. “I'm meeting them at Club Maharajah at 11:00 tomorrow, and I have to be dressed and everything. And you... have your thing with Nines.”

“What are you going to wear?”

“Something... not my usual.”

"Ooh...” Annabelle sat up a bit, propping herself up on her elbows. Her black bracelet from Jasper stood out on her arm. “Will I get you see your outfit?”

“Maybe,” he smirked, stroking her long, black hair. He was tempted to stay in bed with her, very badly tempted.

He sighed and let Blush of Life drop. His body temperature started to cool. Jasper's abs flexed as he sat up on the bed. Annabelle followed, hugging him from behind. He could tell she wanted to ask him to stay, but was holding back. Her body was asking him though, even if her mouth wasn't saying the words. She kissed his shoulder, her body still warm and inviting. He looked back at her over his shoulder.

“Be safe tomorrow,” he told her.

“I will. Nines will look out for me.”

“Sure,” Jasper said, standing and reaching for his pants.

Annabelle watched him get dressed. “You don't like Nines, do you?” she asked slowly.

Jasper shrugged. “He's alright.”

“He's been a big help to me. He's a good man.”

“I know. He's a good mentor for you.”

“Are you jealous of him?” Annabelle asked, hugging a pillow.

“No,” Jasper denied.

Annabelle frowned critically. “Hmm... I think you are.”

“Well, if by 'jealous of him' you mean getting to spend tomorrow night with you instead of going to a party hosted by our enemies, then yes, Annabelle, I'm jealous,” Jasper leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on her forehead.

“Well, I'm sleeping with you, not him,” she said with a smile. “He's too old for me.”

“In more ways than one,” Jasper agreed, “if you care for those kinds of things. And now, I've got to go.”

Now fully dressed, Jasper headed for the door. Annabelle quickly threw on the woolly black hoodie he had given her and followed him. It covered everything important for decency on her body, but the sleeves were too long and hung down over her hands.

“Jasper, please, be safe, and keep Victor and Nelli as safe as you can,” she pleaded.

Jasper paused at the front door and Annabelle hugged him tightly.

“I will try,” he assured her. He glanced back at her laptop on the coffee table. His jaw tightened.

There was nothing he could do about Chloe other than leave her alone and hope she gave up before she got into trouble. It had pained him to see those old photos. He missed her _so_ much.

Reluctantly, Jasper pulled out of the hug and opened Annabelle's door. She waved him goodbye sadly from the stoop. He disappeared from all mortal senses as she shut the door.

Jasper returned to his quiet, lonely sanctum with his Camarilla clothes all ready for the next night. He lay on his bed in the dark, staring up at the ceiling, a plastic candle Annabelle had given him in his hands. He fiddled with it gently, turning it over and over with his long fingers. He could feel Annabelle, at home alone in her bed, probably watching or reading something on her computer, cozy in the labradoodle hoodie and missing him.

He got up after a minute and retrieved a blanket Annabelle had brought over a few days ago. He had agreed she could leave one here and she insisted on it being from her favourite anime. True to her word, the blanket showed Sailor Moon embracing her beau Tuxedo Mask with a moon in the background and stars and red rose petals drifting romantically around them. Jasper hated it, but it smelled of Annabelle and he was missing her. He put the blanket on the bed.

Jasper didn't want to go to sleep, dreading the dreams he would have of Chloe, or of Annabelle in danger, or of the Ivory Tower. Sleep claimed him regardless, as the sun rose.

If he did dream during his daysleep, he blissfully didn't remember them when he awoke.

**Author's Note:**

> A funny little note: One of the spell checks I used wanted me to change the first sentence of this fic from "It was the night before..." to "Twas the night before..." and that made me laugh. Like, I know this stuff is dramatic, but I'm not writing "Twas" in my fic like it's some Dickensian novel.


End file.
